Swinomish Tribe files suit to stop oil trains through reservation – Idle No More

By indianz.com

The Swinomish Tribe of Washington filed a lawsuit in federal court today in hopes of stopping the transport of crude oil through the reservation.

According to the complaint, BNSF Railway has broken the terms of an agreement with the tribe. To resolve a century of trespass claims, the company promised just one train of 25 cars could pass through the reservation in each direction daily.

But with energy development in the Bakken region on the rise, the tribe recently learned that BNSF is sending as many as six trains with 100 cars through the reservation every week. The lawsuit seeks an end to the practice.

“A deal is a deal,” Chairman Brian Cladoosby said in a press release. “Our signatures were on the agreement with BNSF, so were theirs, and so was the United States. But despite all that, BNSF began running its Bakken oil trains across the reservation without asking, and without even telling us. This was exactly what they did for decades starting in the 1800’s.”

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Sachigo Lake members walk 1,000-kilometre journey in memory of murdered youth – Idle No More

By Jodi Lundmark – tbnewswatch.com

THUNDER BAY — Members of Sachigo Lake First Nation are walking 1,000 kilometres in memory of a 20-year-old man killed outside of the city’s movie theatre last fall.

On Oct. 3, 2014, Daniel Levac was fatally stabbed outside of SilverCity movie theatre in Thunder Bay. The Sachigo Lake First Nation youth was a Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School student.

Members of the First Nation will be walking from the community to Thunder Bay through the winter road that connects Sachigo Lake to the highway at Pickle Lake. The journey begins on April 7 and is estimated to take two weeks.

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Brant issues a “Final Offer” regarding land transfer – Idle No More

By Jim Windle – Two Row Times

PARIS – On Friday morning in the chambers of the County of Brant, Mayor Ron Eddy read a draft resolution on behalf of the County reflecting their stance on the ongoing land transfer talks between his council, and that of Brantford and Six Nations.

While indicating that they are still willing to finalize boundary discussions by June 30th, they have not moved from their previous position regarding the quantity of land requested by the city or the terms of that transfer.

The proposed resolution put forward includes a guarantee of meaningful consultation and accommodation with the Six Nations elected council. Until recently, Brantford considered talks that would include Six Nations to be unnecessary. However, pressure by the County to include them as stakeholders rather than as merely observers has caused the City to reconsider its stance and include Six Nations.

When asked if the HDI would be a part of these discussions, Mayor Eddy said no. “As an elected council we have to deal with their elected council.”

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Facebook racism confronted with ‘We Are One’ rally in Thunder Bay – Idle No More

By CBC News

A group of students at Confederation College rallied the broader community to stand up against racism in Thunder Bay on Wednesday after a series of offensive Facebook pages popped up in the city.

Ashley Nurmela pitched the idea of a silent ‘We Are One’ protest to her colleagues in the Native Child and Family Services class last month. The group printed T-shirts and invited others to join the event at noon on Wednesday.

The event comes after Thunder Bay police launched an investigation on March 20 into what police say is “extreme racism” against Aboriginal Peoples in postings on several Facebook pages that appear to originate in the city.

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Elsipogtog land defender Annie Clair fights legal charges – Idle No More

By Robert Devet – Halifax Media Co-op

KJIPUKTUK (HALIFAX) – On April 20th, Elsipogtog First Nation band member Annie Clair will be heading to Moncton to face six charges related to the violent actions of New Brunswick RCMP against defenders of the land in Kent County, New Brunswick.

Clair intends to fight the charges. But she is looking to the wider community for help.

On October 17th, 2013, RCMP officers with assault rifles at the ready, entered a peaceful anti-shale gas encampment along highway 134, near the town of Rexton, New Brunswick.

That encampment was erected to stop Texas-based SWN Resources from exploring for shale gas without proper consent on what remains unceded Mi’kmaq territory.

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Cumberland House grows own produce on road to self-sufficiency – Idle No More

By Jessica Valois and Daeran Gall

The old model of ‘feeding the world’ is being replaced by giving people the resources to feed themselves.

The first settlement in Western Canada is now home to a blossoming river delta market garden.

Valerie Deschambeault, Mayor of Cumberland House, saw a need in her village of roughly 2,000 Aboriginal, Cree and Metis people, and knew growing self-reliant would leave a legacy for future generations.

“We want to work towards the long-term goal of creating a good, healthy food source and a medicinal herb concept for Aboriginal communities,” she says.

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Boys don’t cry – Is it time we start talking about our murdered and missing indigenous men? – Idle No More

By Jeremy Warren – The StarPhoenix

Grace Lafond-Barr believes healing starts in the home, so she moved her family to Muskeg Lake Cree Nation from Saskatoon two years ago to escape the city where murder took away her two brothers and a son.

She hopes the distance between the city and her grandkids will mean a quieter life without the spectre of violence and vice following them as they grow into young men. Lafond-Barr has seen enough of that: in 2002, her 36-year-old brother was stabbed to death; in 2011, a 15-year-old boy shot and killed her 28-year-old son; her 35-year-old halfbrother was fatally stabbed in front of their elderly father in November 2014. “It’s a heartache I don’t wish on anyone at all. In a lot of ways, we’ve failed our children because we’re not the parents we’re supposed to be,” Lafond-Barr said in a recent interview at her home on the reserve north of Blaine Lake.

“We just keep on forgetting how to heal – quit the drugs, quit the gangs. Sometimes I feel powerless because every day you’re reminded of a girl missing or a guy missing.”

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Nihígáál Bee iina’- Walk for Existence – Idle No More

Chief of Blackfeet Nation Seeks President’s Support in Ending Oil Leases on Sacred Lands – Idle No More

By ICTMN Staff – Indian Country Today

Oil leases in the United States are seen as a way to break the need to rely on other countries, however for others, like Chief Earl Old Person they are seen as a way to breaking the back of the world.

The Blackfeet Nation member wrote a letter to President Barack Obama in March seeking his support in ending oil leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area of the Rocky Mountains. The Badger-Two Medicine is 165,588 acres of significant cultural and spiritual importance to the Blackfeet Nation. The mostly roadless area is surrounded by the Blackfeet Reservation, Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and the Rocky Mountain Front. For the Blackfeet, the area is known as the “Backbone of the World.”

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1,000-mile walk takes Navajo on ‘Journey For Existence’ – Idle No More

by Aljazeera

An oil pipeline approved for development across the US state of New Mexico has prompted members of the Navajo Nation to commemorate the 150th anniversary of “The Long Walk”. Activists began marching against the 130-mile long Piñon Pipeline in January to demonstrate how their tribal lands have been “desecrated by resource extraction”. Called the “Journey For Existence”, this 1,000-mile walk aims to galvanize Navajo communities throughout the US.

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